Lost In Rochester
by It'sNotUnusual
Summary: It's five years on and Kurt's moved on- from everything. But is he as happy as he thought he was? T for safety.
1. Kurt

**A/N: I'm really sorry about this, but I seem to gravitate towards making lovely Klaine suffer. I love them, I really do, but this is just my writing style (happens with my own characters all the time). And this one-shot is what I'm leaving you on before I depart for Italy for 10 days. Enjoy. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or any of its affiliates, nor do I claim to. **

_If I lay here_

_If I just lay here_

_Would you lie with me_

_And just forget the world? _

_- Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol _

Kurt Hummel looked out the bedroom window in Rochester, New York. It wasn't New York City, nor did he want it to be. His dreams of stardom had fallen through, but, after all, they were just fancies. He didn't really expect them to work – it would have been nice, but it definitely wasn't the end of the world. He was now working as a part-time French tutor and French translator for films and the like.

The income was steady, the work satisfying and the colleagues friendly, as it would have been on Broadway – but without the stress of not knowing when your next job would come in.

Every Christmas and summer, Kurt went up to Lima, Ohio, to visit his dad and Carole for ten days. It was a long-standing arrangement, and one Kurt just went with. There was no point in arguing with them about it. The part he hated most was Carole grilling him about boyfriends. He didn't have one, and he wasn't sure he wanted one.

Blaine Anderson was somewhere in the United States. He didn't know where, nor did he really care. Their breakup was amicable enough, halfway through senior year, and there were no hard feelings, but nor were there tears. If Kurt had wanted to cry, he would have cried. But he'd seen it coming, and he'd accepted it. After all, you can't have everything, and 98% of high school relationships don't work out.

Him and Blaine were simply part of that 98%.

It just got a little annoying, Carole pestering him on boys, when he didn't have that much interest right now. He wasn't pining, he just simply couldn't care about dating.

He'd tried a few blind dates, set up by his friend Madeleine at work, but they always fell through. Kurt was sure it was something to do with him being 'too effeminate', as the second one – Michael, his name was – had insensitively told him. He didn't care. They were just blind dates, people he didn't know and didn't care about. He had _chosen _Blaine. It had been better that way.

Two years ago, he gotten so desperate that he'd tried doing a one-night stand. He tried not to dwell on it, but vowed to himself 'never again'. It wasn't worth all the stress that came with it.

Kurt did love his life here. Rochester was on the edge of Lake Ontario, and it was really a beautiful city. His life right now was where he wanted it to be; he was on the right track. There was still that nagging 'what if' thought in the back of his mind. What if he was living in New York City and performing on Broadway right now? What if Blaine and him had stayed together? What if they had got married, like Blaine had sworn they would?

Kurt shook his head, clearing it of the 'what if' thoughts. He needed to stop dwelling on them. He liked it here. He liked Rochester, he liked his flat, he liked his job, he liked his friends. He wasn't going to see WMHS again, he wasn't going to see Blaine Anderson and he saw his family for twenty days a year. Everything was fine.

Twenty minutes later, Kurt was walking to work, thoughts about his old life gone. He dipped his head politely at people he passed in the street as a way of hello, smiling slightly.

He was passing a coffee shop, Java's Cafe, when he heard it. He'd refrained from going to coffee shops when he first moved here, because the thought of Blaine still hurt, even if his heart hadn't completely broken when they split. He hadn't gone into any, and the habit had just stuck. Java's was nice enough, but he'd never had the heart to go in.

But that wasn't happening. Because a certain irritating, curly-haired, dapper man was definitely singing. The door was wide open, and he was being unnecessarily loud, as he'd always been.

Why the hell was _Blaine _in _Rochester_? In the café closest to where Kurt lived? Surely that wasn't a coincidence. If Blaine was trying to spy, he was as awful as Kurt was. But it was the song that he was singing that stopped Kurt in his tracks.

Chasing Cars, by Snow Patrol. Kurt could still remember their summer together, Blaine picking the song out and declaring right there, on the spot, that it summed them up better than Teenage Dream ever could. And Chasing Cars became their song.

Now Blaine had the nerve to sing it? _Stop it!_ Kurt said to himself. He probably doesn't even know you're here. It's just a song. It doesn't matter. This shouldn't be affecting him. They weren't together. It had been five years. Kurt was over him. Kurt had been over Blaine for a long time.

"_Would you lie with me, and just forget the world?_" Blaine was singing.

Kurt rolled his eyes. He was done with that idiot. He'd been done for five years. Blaine would never have to know they'd been two feet apart.

Kurt strode away.

He really needed to stop lying to himself – he missed Blaine more than anything.

Kurt turned on his heel and walked into the café.

_If I lay here_

_If I just lay here_

_Would you lie with me_

_And just forget the world? _

**A/N: There we go. I didn't expect it to have such a happy ending, but that's just how it turned out. Yay. Happy note before I leave for Italy. Whoop. :D **

**Please review! If there's interest, I might do a follow-up chapter – what happens in the café after Kurt walks in – that is, if there's enough interest. ;) **

**G-B-C xx **

**Klainebows=Love**


	2. Blaine

**A/N: So, as requested, here's a follow-up chapter. Enjoy. **

**Also, I got a heads-up about the fact that my geography was slightly off. I have only lived in the UK and South-East Asia, and my knowledge of American geography is limited to naming a handful of states and cities/towns… OK, I just did a little game for naming states. I know 10. I actually looked up cities in New York State and picked one at random. Which happened to be Rochester. With regards to the blip, Google was **_**very**_** deceptive. **

**So yeah. Anyway, my error (which actually isn't that fundamental) has been changed. Anyway. I'll stop rambling now. :) The second part of this little two-shot. Enjoy. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol, Adele or anything Glee-ish. And yes, that **_**is **_**a word. **

**WARNING! Contains spoiler from 3x01 (The Purple Piano Project). **

No, Blaine was definitely not a stalker.

At least that was what he was telling himself. He was pretending that, in fact, he _hadn't _pestered Rachel until she told him that Kurt was in Rochester.

Moving in a few streets down was definitely a coincidence.

But that was _it_. Definitely.

But then he'd found that café. Java's Café. He'd found it, and fell in love with it. It was almost as if his high school life was calling out to him, begging him to return it to that idyllic place it was before. His life in Lima, Ohio. He wanted to, he really did. But someone was missing.

Java's Café was so, so similar to the Lima Bean it was almost scary. Everything in it seemed to remind him of some aspect of his old coffee shop… well, almost everything. Because there was a huge gaping hole where Kurt had been.

The breakup had been his idea. He wasn't sure at the time, but he thought he saw Kurt losing interest in the relationship. And, like the naïve teenage boy he was, he decided to just break up. Mercedes and Rachel had told him later that there had been no tears from Kurt, and that just furthered Blaine's belief that it had been the right thing to do. The right thing for both of them. They had to move on. After all, firsts didn't last. Not in the real world.

But maybe, him and Kurt would have. Maybe they could have gotten married, and moved to somewhere that let them get married, let Kurt go into fashion, let Blaine go into law.

But no.

That teenage side of him was still there, it was still taking charge of some of his decisions. And still it wanted Kurt back, even if its brain was trying to tell it no as powerfully as it can, but it still wasn't enough. The teenage side was still fighting.

Fighting hard, and winning.

And so he walked into that café every morning with his guitar, and he played. Played whatever he could. Whatever was on the top of his head, whatever the guitar wanted him to play, whatever came naturally from his fingers. He didn't pay attention to the music. He just played, played as loud as he could, hoping that maybe, just one day, Kurt would walk past. Kurt would walk past, and he'd hear the music, and he'd come in. It was such a long shot, but while there was still that minute chance, while Kurt was still living in Rochester, he was going to play.

With these thoughts going through Blaine's head, he sat down on another Thursday and started strumming.

He didn't know where it came from. From nowhere, really. It just popped into his head, and he started strumming. It probably was his overthinking of Kurt recently. But, whatever the cause, he'd started playing.

_We'll do it all_

_Everything _

_On or off?_

_We don't need_

_Anything_

_Or anyone… _

Blaine's hands froze for a split second. There he was. Kurt. Walking past. He'd stopped. Blaine looked down at the guitar, pretending to be completely absorbed. Kurt couldn't know he'd been seen. That would make him run away faster than anything else. It always had done.

And as he played, he saw Kurt come in. And finally, finally, for the first time in years, their eyes met. The moment was absurdly cliché, but Blaine really wouldn't have it any other way. They'd always been cliché, though. Always. Cliché and stereotypical. Not that he cared.

_If I lay here_

_If I just lay here_

_Would you lie with me_

_And just forget the world? _

Kurt came to stand in front of him, and Blaine let the chords fade away. "Hi," Kurt murmured.

"Hi," Blaine whispered back.

"What are you doing here?"

"To get you back. I missed you, so _so _much. Unendurably much. So… here I am." Blaine set the guitar down and gestured to himself, much like he had done when he'd told Kurt he'd transferred, back in their senior year.

Kurt took a step back, eyes widening slightly. "Oh," he breathed. "I'm sorry… Blaine, I'm so sorry. I've… I've got a boyfriend now."

Eyes blinking fast, Kurt walked out of the café. Blaine knew he'd never come back.

He also knew Kurt didn't have a new boyfriend.

But then, after all, not everything could be sunshine and rainbows. People split up. They move on. It's the way the world works.

Maybe Blaine would be better off remembering that.

Or then again, maybe not.

_I'll be waiting for you _

_When you're ready to love me again_

_I'll put my hands up_

_I'll be somebody different_

_I'll be better… _

_To you. _

**A/N: Sorry. As much as I adore Klaine fluff, I can't seem to write it myself. Klangst all the way. :D **

**Sorry for the ending, but it worked **_**so well**_**. If anyone feels like writing a sequel to this, go ahead (as long as you ask me first, and I get to see the finished result ;) ). I doubt anyone'll take me up on that offer. **

**Anyway. I digress. **

**G-B-C xx **


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